Category Archives: Uncategorized

And frankly, it annoys the crap outta me. Because I’ve had blue hair for like, four years. Since 2011.

In 2011 everyone who dyed their hair a funky color dyed it pink. I was going to SCBWI-LA where I would meet many fab people, including people who I had become Twitter friends with. I wanted to be easily recognizable.

After I got home, I could’ve let it grow out. But I just like the blue hair—it’s not all blue, just a wide swath of it. I am not trying nor have I ever tried to cover up my gray. It is still clearly visible.

Very. Clearly.

Anyway. I do not want people to think I am following a trend—sort of defeats the purpose of dying your hair a wild color, doesn’t it? So…

AMERICA! My hair was blue before the Kardashians even THOUGHT about dying their hair blue!

Tell Your Friends. Heck, tell your enemies:

Like this:

I’m finally back, for good. Mostly. Let me tell you why my presence on This Old Blog has been sporadic, at best.

I’ve been busy.

Writing.

Thing is, there’s only so much time in the day. So you gotta prioritize. When commitments or health or responsibilities or circumstances leave you a small window of time to write, do you spend that time on Pinterest? Twitter?

Well, heck no. You spend that time on your writing. Because a spiffy Social Media Presence is not going to get you published, only a spiffy manuscript will.

Like this:

And so to pick the recipient of the KidLit Scoop 100th Issue Giveaway, I counted the number of comments and generated a random number between one and twenty-nine. (One being the first comment, two the second…)

I don’t give a rat’s ass damn why Edward Snowden blew the whistle–whether he’s a spy, a patriot or a nut.

What I do care about: I have been classified a criminal.

And so have you.

Our government feels it is equally important to collect information on you, me and Al Qaida.

On September 12th, 2001, Americans agreed with an array of security measures in order to feel safe again. So now the government bugs reporters’ phones. I don’t remember agreeing to intimidation of a free press.

Parents of a deceased Navy Seal who have questioned the circumstances of his death,have reason to believe their phone has been surveilled. I didn’t agree to harass grieving parents.

Think of it. Who you called, when, and for how long. Maybe even what you said. Your photos, your documents, your messages, purchases, bank and credit card transactions, your geographic location. What you surfed on the web. Information all gathered without rationale, without showing a judge probable cause, without a warrant.

I am damn sure I never agreed to that.

Anybody remember what happened after 9-11 when the FBI tried to demand lists of books that patrons checked out of libraries? The librarians told them to take a flying leap, that’s what happened. ALA’s standards are to protect their customers’ privacy.

The IRS goes beyond the scope of its warrant to gather files concerning the financial dealings of an employee of a health institute, and seizes the health records of ten million innocent people, even though workers inform them they are violating HIPPA laws and their own warrant. (Yes, that is a horrible run-on sentence. I am blind passion.) Oh, well. At least the IRS has canceled its spyware purchases. Probably because they got caught.

A 95-year-old lady with leukemia, in a wheelchair, is forced to remove her adult diaper by TSA.

Have a fender bender in New Jersey, and soon the cop might be able to confiscate your cell phone. Ostensibly to see if it contributed to the accident, but what if you’re videoing your interaction for some reason and the cop doesn’t like it? (Which you can do.)

All those laws that chip away at your freedom sound like a great idea at the time, but guess what. If they can be misused, they eventually will be. Because when citizens allow their government to treat all of them like criminals–without reason, without provocation–it isn’t long before disagreeing with the government becomes a crime.

Tell the truth. Since you’ve found out that Google, Yahoo and Facebook turn over aggregated data to the NSA, have you thought twice about retweeting something? Posting something on Facebook?

Writing about certain topics on your blog?

If we really want to be safe, we can allow Homeland Security into all our homes, let them inventory all our stuff and microchip us. After all, that’s what we’re currently allowing, virtually.

I don’t want to be that safe. I want my business to be my own–not because I have anything to hide, but because dammit, it’s none of anyone else’s effin’ concern.

TAKING ALL THOSE NOTES

So in-between meeting the hell out of all of you and passing out business cards at SCBWI-LA-2011, there will be workshops/lectures/talks/salons/confabs. And I will need to take copious notes, as I have used up all my memory brain cells long, long ago in a galaxy far away.

I can’t go the old-fashioned route of pen and paper. My hand cramps. I’m too slow. My handwriting is just this side of an earthquake readout. *whine*

While I love my laptop, it weighs approximately 3,000 pounds. *double whine*

But I recently acquired a leetle gadget that I will already be carrying with me…

But gosh. The keyboard is small. If I were Freckles McYoungest, I would have the fastest thumbs in the West. But since I’m not, I will just make do with:

IS THIS THE SPIFFIEST THING YOU’VE EVER SEEN IN YOUR LIFE???

It’s a bluetooth mini-keyboard. You can sync it to your iPhone 4 with no need of a dongle. I got this Targus model at RadioShack for 39$$. Cheaper than buying a netbook, for sure.

I downloaded Pages from iTunes for 10$. You can make whole documents on your phone with this thing, then send it to your email in a Word document. (Or PDF, whatever.) OH THE HUMANITY.

That tiny little stand came with my iPhone case. I think I’m going to put some foam weather stripping on the end to keep my phone from sliding off.

COME LET ME FEED YOU MY BLOG

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